As you can see, Walter is doing a last inspection of my sewing box, before I pack it up to go to the retreat!
The Retreat Centre has become quite familar to me, but without our guild's fantastic organizing committee, nothing would run quite so smoothly and seem like an effortless process. (Tho we do know it takes months of planning ahead of time!)
When we start to arrive on Friday afternoon, it is not long before everyone is set up at their (preassigned) sewing stations and everyone gets busy with the projects they brought along to work on. Lynne W. had a tablerunner project to teach which included some TRICKY piecing and extra techniques -- I don't know how i forgot to take photos of it! HMMMM....
Now, when you get to take part in a Quilting Retreat, it is not ALL about quilting and sewing. FOOD is, as always on our minds and this year Rosemary Heights kitchen chefs and staff served up some excellent meals! Saturday's lunch was especially fine. It was a build it yourself salad with all sorts of goodies piled ontop of fine fresh romaine! MMMMM.... MMMMM... MMMM.... Good!
Surrounding Rosemary Heights meeting rooms, kitchens and accommodations (which also by the way are individual rooms -- small but very comfy beds) is the natural setting of wooded and open lawn and meadow areas. When I arrived there were about 6 deer just off the lawn area, but of course moved out of range of the camera, by the time I got it out of my bag!
The above photo was taken looking north west toward Vancouver and if you are eagle eyed you will see the busy street leading to the busy city centre...
Now, not only do we spend our hours working on projects that we brought but we are very priviledged to have the support of the quilt shops from Chilliwack to Vancouver to offer up discount coupons for a SHOP HOP on our way to the retreat centre but also to donate door prizes for some extra excitement during the 3 day weekend at Retreat. I was so very lucky to receive a drawn door prize donated by the QUILTED STITCH in Ft Langley.
The other shops that helped out with coupons, gift certificates and prizes were:
A Great Notion's Quiltworks 103 - 19289 Langley Bypass, Surrey BC
A Great Notion's Quiltworks 32526 Dahlstrom Ave, Abbotsford, BC
A Quilted Stitch 110 - 23343 Mavis Ave Ft Langley, BC
Castle Sewing Centre 18543 Fraser Hwy Surrey, BC
Hamels Fabrics and Quilting 5843 Lickman Rd Chilliwack, BC
Laura's Fashion Fabrics 1552 Johnston Rd. White Rock, BC
My Little Quilt Shop in the Woods 26935 199A Ave Maple Ridge, BC
Toews Sewing 2518A Clearbrook RD Abbotsford, BC
Tom's Sewing 109 -8318 120th Street Surrey BC (but they had a fire on Feb 2, so check on line for info about the store)
Wineberry Fabrics 202 - 6355 152 St Surrey BC
And Carola's Quilt Shop at 7 - 1161 Sunshine Coast Hwy Gibsons, BC who came to our retreat and set up a booth on Saturday morning for a few hours so that some of us could do a bit of shopping within walking distance of our sewing station!
It was a fantastic weekend with lots of laughing and learning! If you get a chance to be part of such an event -- I would say, Don't pass it by.
Now, What can I do with my prize of a Jelly Roll and matching Charm Pack? I am thinking perhaps a Block Pattern called Boxy Stars check it out here http://quiltville.com/boxystars.shtml What do you think? I'll try to get some progress in the next few days with some pictures of my version of these blocks.... Come back and visit!
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